Leading Workplace Change™

My inclination as this year of 2008 closes is to look for wisdom and learning from history and older civilizations to guide me in my thinking for 2009.  The thought swirling in my brain over the past few weeks is that civilizations usually go through times of self-destruction and ruin which unknowingly create fertile ground for re-birth.  And most likely, we are going through this kind of time today in our post-post industrial, global age.

These kind of thoughts led me to turn to the writings of Joseph Campbell for guidance.  Campbell studied and wrote about myths of the world, looking and finding commonality of themes across continents and ages.  He used his knowledge to explain how myths are our ties to the past and help us understand ourselves and the world we live in today.

In my perusal of his writings and my notes, one theme stood out as a possible source of guidance - the stories about heroes’ journeys.

…the journey is not about denying reason…to the contrary, by overcoming the dark passions, the hero symbolizes our ability to control the irrational savage within us…we must find within ourselves the resources of character to meet our destiny… the ultimate aim of a hero’s quest must be neither release nor ecstasy for oneself, but the wisdom and the power to serve others…there is a point of wisdom beyond the conflicts of illusions and truth by which lives can be put back together again.

The Power of Myth by Joseph Campbell with Bill Moyers, 1988

I believe heroes and heroines will emerge in our organizations, in our society and within ourselves in the next year as we work to re-fashion our world.

Tags: Good Books and Articles, Personal-Ah-Hah Moments // Add Comment »

As you might expect, I am interested in news articles that work to explain through insider and expert interviews the reasons for the success and failure of an organization.  At some point in the articles, there are usually cryptic lines about the need for a “change in culture” or “kudos to a cultural strength.”  These lines are many times used as short-hand to describe underlying reasons for the organization’s success, failure or what needs to be done for future revival. 

One recent article in the New York Times chronicling Citigroup’s drastic decline ended with an intriguing statement about what will be required of Citigroup if it wants to succeed as a bank subject to regulatory control.

Safe and soundness has to be no less important than growth and profits….

This combination of characteristics surprised me.  I riffled through my culture data base to find an organization that had safeness/soundness and growth/profits in their combination of cultural drivers for success.  My first instinct was that the drivers were opposites and impossible to balance.  

I kept on looking and finally out of hundreds of companies in our data base, found a couple of companies with this combination of cultural values – they were large and venerable utility companies, leaders in a regulated industry.  Their focus on growth was to achieve greater operational efficiencies for customers and shareholders - safety was tied to technical innovation to ensure the health of employees and the public.  And soundness related to financial and budgetary practices to ensure profitability and a fair return to shareholders.

Of course, it makes sense to find culture best practice examples for the new Citigroup in the utility industry that has gone through its own journey through de-regulation and back.  We are beginning as a society to think again of our banks as part of a national and now a global financial system.  It is good to know that balancing “safe & soundness” with “growth & profits” is possible and a proven recipe for success in industries subject to regulatory control.

Tags: Corporate Culture Observer, News Commentary // Add Comment »

In my last post I wrote about a public figure openly acknowledging a flaw in their thinking and how that capability is a powerful tool for leaders to model and reward in a time of change.  It allows for people to move forward quickly past paralysis and blaming to new ways of acting.  In thinking more, I realized there is an “underbelly” side to how some organizations respond to people taking responsibility for their mistakes that needs to be shared as well.

One “underbelly” response usually occurs in organizations where the focus on achieving results or winning is taken to an extreme.  In these workplaces, missteps are not easily accepted or forgotten and people look for opportunities to take advantage of someone else’s slip-up for their own benefit.  The focus is usually on winning for oneself and not for the good of the company.  This quote exemplifies the impact on employee productivity and morale.

Those that slip-up want to pass responsibility on to others and not be part of the solution.  No one wants to take the blame.  People are afraid that someone else will take advantage of the mistake for their own benefit.  The system for rewards and recognition encourages individual “point scoring” over others rather than teamwork.

There is clearly a feel of internal competition in this workplace.  It would take courage or connections with the “right people” for someone to be willing to try something new. 

Consequently, the learning for leaders is first to be aware and assess the workplace culture you breathe everyday.  Are there any “underbelly” practices that may act as barriers to openly acknowledging and learning from mistakes?  How would you personally intercede to re-direct these undermining practices?  Follow the advice of Peter Drucker as outlined in one of my previous posts and look for pockets in the workplace where folks are regularly more open.  Ask them how they make it safe for people to try new ways of working and hold themselves accountable for both their successes and their missteps?

Finally, a primary role of leaders who want to mindfully re-direct their workplace culture, is to have a personal story crafted as to why they see a shift in behaviors is needed.  Be prepared to be called dull and boring as your job will be to repeat differing versions of the story many times over the weeks, months ahead as people muscle their way through new ways of working.

Tags: Leaders Leading, Workplace Stories // Add Comment »

Admitting to a mistake is never easy.  And as a leader, it is both an important capability as well as an action that needs to be done thoughtfully.  In late October, when I read in the papers about former Federal Reserve Chairman, Allan Greenspan admitting to a fundamental flaw in his thinking about the self-correcting power of free markets, I sat up and took notice. This was not just an expression of regret about a day-to-day action, it was an acknowledgement of a flaw in one of his own fundamental beliefs that directed his decisions in guiding the U.S. economy.

Notice in the following statement made by Mr. Greenspan before the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform that he includes a personal reference and an emotional response to his mistake…”Those of us who have looked to the self-interest of lending institutions to protect shareholders’ equity, myself included, are in a state of shocked disbelief…”  He did not go into elaborate detail at the Congressional hearing, but he took responsibility for his mistake and later in the hearing, briefly noted an idea for corrective action.

In the world of organizational culture, how current and past leaders respond to mistakes has profound implications.  In cultures where adaptability and innovation are engrained, leaders regularly model both consequences and learning from mistakes by doing it themselves and rewarding others who do the same.  It is a natural part of how they lead to encourage creativity and make it safe for people to commit to stretch goals and hold themselves accountable for achieving them.

The learning for leaders is that their capability to openly acknowledge a mistake is a powerful tool.  It allows for people within an organization to move forward more quickly past blaming to action.  No one ever promised that being a leader would be easy, but no matter how you feel about Allan Greenspan’s policies, following his lead in a time of turmoil is something to think about.

Tags: Leaders Leading, News Commentary // 1 Comment »

Economic instability is still with us.  And, we keep hearing it is going to take awhile to work ourselves out of this financial crisis of the new global age.  Consequently, patience and building for the future are tactics driving my actions these days.  In the last three posts, I wrote about differing culture characteristics that allowed certain companies to historically move through hard economic times and to endure.  These characteristics are:

- An optimistic spirit (companies in cyclical industries)

- An ability to adapt (Goldman Sachs)

- A commitment to a long-term vision (UPS)

I realize, reading about organizational culture best practices is easy, but building for the future by engraining new ways of thinking and working is not.  According to recently passed management guru Peter Drucker, “…changing behavior works only if it can be based on the existing culture.” (Don’t Change Corporate Culture–Use It, Wall Street Journal, 3/19/01).  He gave examples in his short article from 1991 about how Japan and Germany re-built their societies after the Second World War through rewarding new habits based on traditional national values.  Today, it is still the most reliable and quickest way to re-direct an organizational culture over time as well.  An important qualifier is that you must believe the traditional values will support future success.

So how does one start for example to build an organizational ability to adapt and to see change as an opportunity?  Drucker had ideas about this as well.  He recommended seeking out individuals or groups within your organization that already exhibit these habits and ask them how they do it.  Once these attitudes and ways of working are specifically defined for your organization, the next task is to shift recognitions, rewards and consequences in support of the new desired habits and behaviors. 

And for those who find analogies helpful, there are similarities in the process of culture re-direction to the best practices for raising children; so as any dedicated parent knows, achieving results will require patience and a willingness by organizational leaders to model new behaviors as much as using rewards and adverse consequences.

Tags: Corporate Culture Observer, Leaders Leading // 1 Comment »

In my last few posts, the theme has been identifying organizational culture characteristics that help to explain why some companies make it through hard economic times and others do not.  Companies who compete in a cyclical industry are a gold mine of culture best practices as their organizational DNA is built to withstand regular ups and downs.  One common cultural characteristic we find within these companies is an optimistic spirit engrained in how they operate.  This quote from a leader in a defense contractor company with over 75 years of history defines it well. 

We have been under the gun before.  We pick ourselves up again and again.  The strength of this place is the ability to sustain the peaks and valleys with a positive spirit.

We see this positive spirit emerge in employees from all levels of successful cyclical industry companies and described in a variety of ways.  It can be as simple as an employee taking pride in their work.

I feel personally successful because I keep our aging equipment operational day after day.

And for others, they will describe their organization through metaphors of resilience.

- We are like a strong heart…just keeps beating and beating.

- What we do best is ‘hunker down’ and wait…just believe we are going to make it.  The tide will turn our way again.

For a leader, there are some cautions in how to manage this cultural characteristic of optimistic spirit.  In such companies, employees relate that one of the requirements for personal success is to be upbeat in attitude and message;  if taken to an extreme,this can lead to unintended consequences where the culture makes it difficult to talk about negative or controversial topics.  Accordingly, leaders and managers need to be mindful about finding a balance between modeling and rewarding optimism while at the same time putting in mechanisms to allow critical comments to be heard.

In cultures where resilience is valued and nurtured, an optimistic spirit is a key characteristic to support a company to naturally move through hard economic times and work together to endure.

Tags: Leaders Leading, Workplace Stories // Add Comment »

In this time of deep economic turmoil, I am thinking about what kinds of culture characteristics allows one company to survive while others go bankrupt?  Last week, I wrote about one survival characteristic - commitment to a long-term vision.  This characteristic guides leaders to balance short-term business decisions against how well the decision helps the company achieve its long-term strategies.  In my reading about the financial companies that are surviving today’s economic turmoil, other culture best practices are emerging – one is ability to adapt.

On Wall Street, one of the companies surviving recent events as an independent company is Goldman Sachs.  And, in an article in the New York Times, (Wall Street, R.I.P. by Julie Creswell & Ben White 9/28/08) it is possible to identify a few clues on how adaptability is one of the keys to Goldman’s survival.

“They change to fit their environment. When it was good to go public, they went public,” said Michael Mayo, banking analyst at Deutsche Bank. “When it was good to get big in fixed income, they got big in fixed income. When it was good to get into emerging markets, they got into emerging markets. Now that it’s good to be a bank, they became a bank.”

Many companies we work with strive for this ability to adapt as epitomized by Goldman, but it is not easy to engrain in a culture if it is not there naturally.  Goldman, founded in 1869 has survived as an independent company for almost 150 years, starting as a partnership and changing to a public company in 1999.  Some of the common practices that I would expect to find supported in their workplace are: risk taking and creativity if backed up by data or experience; and, expectations for individuals to learn from mistakes and to see change as an opportunity, not as a threat.

The learning for leaders is not straightforward in this example as adaptability is one of the rarest culture characteristics we find naturally engrained in organizations.  It is not easy to take culture best practices and apply them wholesale to another organization, even in the same industry.  The best first step is to include a culture diagnosis of your own organization as part of a strategic planning effort. Next, the leadership team will need to model the attitudes and behaviors they decide are required for the organization to succeed in a time of economic turmoil.  The first new attitude might just be - seeing change as an opportunity and not as a threat!

Tags: Corporate Culture Observer, Leaders Leading // Add Comment »

Like many of us these days, I woke up this morning craving some positive news in the midst of our current economic instability.  Just as I was sitting down to write, our UPS delivery arrived for the day.  The driver is always friendly and at the same time efficient – never a wasted motion.  I was somehow reassured both by the normalcy of the delivery and also by thinking about the company behind it – United Parcel Service (UPS).  This is a company that does not make it into the news for any spectacular short-term gain, but is known for its steady and consistent growth.

I put on my organizational culture hat and thought that UPS is most likely a company with a strategic cultural driver of commitment to a long-term vision.  With this kind of driver in place, leaders are guided to balance their decisions concerning a possible short-term business gain against how well the decision will help the company achieve its long-term strategies.  Most likely, some portion of profit is re-invested into development of new products or services; and, leaders probably consider the needs of all stakeholders when making strategic decisions.  In the long-run this approach helps the company maintain a stable and committed workforce through good and bad business cycles.

Thus, I was not much surprised when I found the current CEO of UPS, Scott Davis expressing similar views in a recent interview with the Atlanta Journal & Constitution (Q&A / Scott Davis, Chief executive officer of UPS by Rachel Tobin Ramos, 9/20/08)

“We’re not really managing for the next quarter but many years into the future… It sounds folksy, but we really think our job is to leave the company in better shape for the next generation…We all feel very much involved in the outcome of this company (UPS). We still have about 30 percent of the company owned by insiders, both active employees and retirees.”

I do feel more positive about the potential of our country after thinking about UPS and the model it offers future company founders and the leaders of today.  We need to find successful models to guide us in how to transform our short-term gain focus into personal and organizational visions that balance what is good for today with what is good for the long-term.

Tags: Corporate Culture Observer, Leaders Leading // Add Comment »

The emergence of Republican Vice-Presidential candidate, Sarah Palin is making us think deeply about which kind of background and training will serve us best in the next leader of our country.  Ms Palin’s background as a mayor and the governor in Alaska seems to be of interest to many people and to me as well.  It may be the fact that the state she lives and governs is in many people’s minds - the last American frontier.  It makes us think about our country’s roots in rugged individualism – surviving alone in a log cabin in the wilderness.  In many people’s minds – rugged individualism is a founding ethos of our country.  And we do know how it plays out, as it is alive and well today in the organizational cultures of many American-based companies.

In organizational culture lingo – rugged individualism translates into valuing people who are “self-starters.”  They are self-motivated with a “can-do” attitude and they are able to figure things out on their own.  Successful people in “self-starter” cultures usually need to seek out their own opportunities and the organization waits for the crème to rise to the top.  There is not much investment in formal career development except for high potential people who have already proven themselves.  It can lead to intense internal competition when people start looking out for themselves more so than for the good of the organization.

So what does this mean for leaders of companies with a “self-starter” culture?  As you can see above, there are positive and not so positive aspects of this kind of culture and balance is again part of the answer.  A leader wants to harness the self-motivation towards meeting company goals; and, force collaboration where it is a requirement through alignment between personal and organizational metrics.  They also need a new and consistent focus on managing and developing people to produce 100% output from everyone.  Leaders will need to muscle these new foci as they go against the grain of “self-starter” cultures.

As a country, we are not alone in the wilderness anymore – we live and work in a complex, inter-related global marketplace.  And, shifting our national belief in a pure form of rugged individualism as represented in the cultures of many of our American-based companies will not be easy, but important for the long-term success of our economy.

Tags: Corporate Culture Observer, Leaders Leading // Add Comment »

I met up with a friend recently, and in five minutes, he brought me up to date on his job at a residential real estate company.  He started by saying - “we hired a new managing broker from outside the company; she is putting in an electronic marketing system and it is driving us crazy!”  He laughed as he said - ”We never needed a marketing system before.  We put our client names on a PDA rolodex - made sure we kept up with relationships at the country club and every year many of us made the million dollar club.  But the current downturn in the market is making all of us nervous and we know we need to do some things differently.”

I could not help but put on my “corporate culture observer” hat as I heard him use the phrase keeping up with relationships.  It makes sense that being relationship-driven is one of the traditional underlying sources of success in residential real estate.  It is the case in most companies where success in personal selling is the preferred method used to create income. And, from my knowledge of organizational culture it is normal that the primary source of external success is also many times used to guide how people operate within the sales organization.  They probably do not write things down or record how work gets done. They most likely talk to the folks who have been there the longest to find out how to solve a problem.

Utilizing an electronic marketing system is of course driving my friend and his colleagues crazy at his company.  It requires people to input data regularly which takes time away from maintaining relationships.  This is going against the grain of a relationship-driven culture and it will be hard for people to maintain unless people are consistently supported and the system brings in some quick wins.  The managing broker will need to support people in muscling their way through unfamiliar behaviors.

My friend ended his tirade against the new marketing system by noting that he agreed with the new managing broker’s plan about everyone needing to work smarter and build on each other’s success.  I asked him if he thought the new marketing system would help them to do that.  His response was – “Yes, but someone has to be brave enough to take the time and teach me how to work the system first!”

Tags: Corporate Culture Observer, Workplace Stories // Add Comment »